With President Trump’s signature August 23rd, the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (“SBRA”) will officially take effect in February 2020. The SBRA is designed to fill a gap in the current bankruptcy laws by providing a framework for small businesses to successfully reorganize in bankruptcy court. As noted by the senate bill’s sponsor, Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, “Chapter 11…

Starting October 1st, 2019, two new Amnesty programs will arrive in Illinois. One will cover all taxes administered by the Department of Revenue. The other program will cover franchise taxes. Before these programs come into play, members of the HMB State and Local Tax practice provide insight into what these changes will look like. Taxes Administered by Department of Revenue…

Disclosing tax return information has always been a dicey topic. Under the guise of transparency, there have been several proposals by tax advocates over the years to disclose tax information. The focus of these proposals has generally been on the taxes paid by corporate America and the use of tax planning strategies. As a general principle, this type of limited…

Illinois’ tax treatment of leases is an anomaly when compared to most other jurisdictions.[1] The general rule in most jurisdictions is to impose sales tax on the receipts collected from the lessee, the actual user of the equipment. However, Illinois differs, at least in the context of a long-term lease (i.e., more than one year), by treating the lessor of…

Business Email Compromise ("BEC") is a scam perpetrated by cyber criminals to attack businesses that first began to be tracked and reported by the FBI in 2013. BEC typically consists of phony or phishing emails that appear to originate from a company executive or member of a company's accounting or finance department containing fraudulent payment instructions with the objective to…

As you may be aware, the Illinois legislature recently completed its 2019 legislative session. This session was particularly productive from a tax legislation perspective and we would like to update you on the key state and local tax changes that may affect you or your business. Please do not hesitate to contact any member of the HMB SALT team if…

David provides an overview of the regulation of cannabis and considers the top legal issues faced by a cannabis-related business, focusing on the conflict between federal law and state laws where medical or adult use recreational marijuana is legal.

Should states embrace GILTI? Marylin Wethekam gives her opinion: “While the rationale for GILTI may work at the federal level, its adoption at the state level raises several issues and concerns.” Read the full brief here.

Everyone loves a sequel, right? What's old is new these days with remakes taking the box office by storm as well as dominating people's DVRs. The same can be said for the state tax world. A large number of my picks for this year's noteworthy income tax decisions are appeals from previous years' decisions. The following cases are ones that…

John Guzzardo and Rick Rein wrote an article for NABT American Bankruptcy Trustee Journal regarding the use of Consent Directives to locate offshore assets. A consent directive is a "rare bird" investigatory tool that litigants in the US may use to discover assets and information from debtors or third parties located anywhere in the world. Recently, the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy…

Cryptocurrency has been all the rage recently in the financial and legal news. Everyone has or knows someone who owns bitcoin (the most common form of cryptocurrency), but what exactly is cryptocurrency?

Everyone is by now likely familiar with the recent Wayfair decision and its central holding. Prior to Wayfair, businesses had some degree of comfort that they would not be required to collect and remit sales or use taxes to states in which those businesses did …

Article by: Diane Yetter Read full article published by Sales Tax Institute on 5/18/18. The South Dakota v. Wayfair court case has been dominating news cycles lately and in a very short time, much has happened. On April 17th, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments and this article gets different perspectives on the outcome from five experts on sales…

The use of cryptocurrencies is increasing at a staggering pace. As cryptocurrency use becomes mainstream, its use as a form of payment and storage as an asset will increase across industries and among companies and individuals.

State and Local Tax Attorneys Fred Marcus, Jordan Goodman and Marilyn Wethekam recently authored "Sales and Use Taxes: The Machinery and Equipment Exemption" for Bloomberg BNA's Tax Management Portfolios, 1330 3rd edition. This portfolio discusses sales and use tax incentives for machinery and equipment used in manufacturing operations. HMB offers a limited number of hard copies for clients. Click here to…

Most of the buzz of 2017 focused on state attempts to "Kill Quill" and a "will they or won't they" debate of whether the U.S. Supreme Court would accept cert to review the long-standing "physical presence" standard for remote sales tax collection established under Quill Corporation v. North Dakota. The decision to accept the case could result in a major…

On December 22, 2017, Public Law 115-97, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the Act) was signed into law. This Act will impact Illinois' income tax base and therefore the state's income tax revenue. The Department has analyzed the Act based on current Illinois law, federal law, and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rulings and interpretations and issued an "Explanation of the…

The Illinois replacement tax allows an LLC or partnership to deduct from its base income ”personal service income” or a reasonable allowance for compensation paid or accrued for services rendered by the partners.

2017 was to be the year of federal tax reform. The initial federal tax reform proposals were more theoretical than detailed. There was, however, a common theme. The proposed reform was focused on territorial concepts, taxing imports, encouraging repatriation of foreign earnings by reducing the …

Congress appears poised to enact a major tax reform that could potentially make fundamental changes in the way you and your family calculate your federal income tax bill, and the amount of federal tax you will pay. This letter is designed to help you evaluate …

The focus of the SALT community’s discussion generally has been on the states’ search for revenue and the creation of new revenue sources. What has been overlooked in that discussion, however, is the revenue needs of cities, counties, and other local governmental bodies.